Ain’t nothing but hotdog! Meet LIDL’s tweeting truck

To mark the launch of its King of the Grill BBQ range, LIDL has introduced Ireland’s first ‘tweeting food truck’, which will be social networking its way around the country over the next three weeks.

LIDL, which has 50,000 fans on Facebook, embarked on its BBQ odyssey up and down the land last week with a blogger’s launch.

The truck’s ‘taste trail’ hinges upon tweets and clues divulged on Facebook and Twitter, so that LIDL’s online fans can find out where its next stop will be. LIDL’s Twitter handle is @lidl_ireland

At each stop, ‘Elvis’ will serve up free food to the masses from the truck, while also dishing out special bar-coded promotional coupons so shoppers can redeem money off LIDL’s King of the Grill barbecue products next time they’re shopping in store.

There will also be prizes for the first 20 visitors to the truck at each location.

Twitter followers will have the opportunity to win a top-of-the-range gas barbecue by scanning the QR (quick response) code that appears in the artwork on the side of the vehicle.

LIDL’s Aoife Clarke explained there is a major prize for one lucky winner who gets the most votes – the truck will pull up at his or her house and host a BBQ for the winner’s friends and family.

LIDL dips its toe in the social river

The idea for the QR codes and Twitter and Facebook campaign came from social media marketing outfit SimplyZesty.

Clarke explained the retailer is finding its social media channels to be growing rapidly in Ireland. “We see social getting bigger and bigger. We’ve been experimenting with different competitions and find the medium is ideal for allowing us to ask the fans what they’d like to see.

“We’re great believers in listening and interacting with anyone who makes a comment.

“We generally find the sentiment on Facebook, for example, to be quite good and we find people are happier to interact in a more informal setting.

“On the one hand, it’s great to get feedback on store events with family fun days, we’re finding our staff are beginning to use these channels to communicate. So while we feel we’ve been playing catch-up for a while, social media for us is only going to get bigger.”